American Veterinary Medical Association Membership Survey Shows Association Leadership, Membership Well Aligned In Goals And Values

Main Category: Veterinary
Article Date: 19 Oct 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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A recent survey of members of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) revealed that the values and goals of the association leadership - the Executive Board - are shared by AVMA members.

Over the past four years, AVMA leadership worked to develop a set of five goals to guide the association into the future, emphasizing legislative advocacy, workforce shortages, education, animal welfare, and economic viability. In a survey of membership, members identified four of those five goals as some of their top goals for the future as well.

"It's nice to see from the Membership Needs Assessment taken in 2007 that the strategic goals are still important to the broad depth of membership, from the students, to government, to academia and all members," explains Dr. David L. McCrystle, chair of the AVMA Executive Board. "The AVMA is an umbrella organization for a very diverse profession, so this really shows we've done well in understanding the needs and values of our members."

Here are some examples:

-- Economic viability - On the survey, "the economic viability and sustainability of the veterinary profession" was ranked by the Executive Board as their top goal and concern, tied with Advocacy, and members agreed ranking it was their top concern as well.

-- Advocacy - "veterinary related issues in local, state, federal and international legislation and regulation" was also a top concern of the Executive Board on the survey, tied with economic viability, and members agreed, ranking it their third highest priority.

-- Workforce shortages - "critical shortages in veterinary workforce, infrastructure and resources" ranked as third among members of the Executive Board and members agreed that this goal was very important, ranking it sixth.

The only strategic goal of the Executive Board that Association members did not seem to share is the importance of education and the AVMA's role in veterinary education. Members ranked education very low on their priorities. Dr. W. Ron DeHaven, chief executive officer of the AVMA, said that this is understandable. Academia makes up only a slim minority of the veterinary workforce, so most members likely are not aware of the challenges facing our veterinary education system.

"Not only do we need to keep up our excellence in education, but also we need to acknowledge that the current educational model we've used for the last 30 years is not meeting our current needs and it certainly won't meet the needs that we expect to see in the future," DeHaven explains.

Dr. DeHaven explains that veterinary education impacts so many other issues in the profession, from economic viability to workforce shortages.

"For example, you can't consider the veterinary workforce shortages without discussing education. The two issues are inextricably linked. The workforce problems have to be addressed at the educational level," he explains. "Another of our strategic goals is economic viability, and education is certainly relevant to that issue. Today, students are graduating with average debt of $120,000 and starting salaries of about $61,000, so there are some challenges there if we are going to continue to attract the best and the brightest into the profession. Furthermore, many of the bills we lobby for at the federal and state levels are to expand and improve veterinary education, so education and our advocacy activity are also linked."

There was another slight difference of opinion between the AVMA Executive Board and membership identified in the survey of members. Both heavily identified animal welfare as an important issue, but members ranked this statement "Veterinarians need to be recognized as the leading resource in animal health/animal welfare policy" as the second most important, behind only economic viability. This was ranked eighth by the board.

"The AVMA Executive Board decided that the AVMA needs to be recognized as a leading voice in animal welfare, but the survey results indicate that membership, while they agree with that, seem to want veterinarians, in general, to take that leadership role in animal welfare," says Dr. McCrystle. "I think it's important to recognize that all veterinarians seem united in agreement that animal welfare is very important and the profession must be heard."

Dr. DeHaven explains that the results of the survey also offer the Board an opportunity to better understand and respond to the membership. For example, the Executive Board is also working to improve diversity in the association staff and volunteer leadership to get the best possible cross section of the profession. Today, many councils, committees and divisions at the AVMA reflect the broad diversity of membership.

"Irrespective of gender and generational factors, I am convinced that every member of the Executive Board is dedicated to the profession and dedicated to the AVMA," Dr. DeHaven says. "We all realize that for us to be relevant for our members into the future, change is going to be essential, and hence the Executive Board has recognized the need to make sure we are responsive to our younger members, which includes actively recruiting more recent graduates into leadership positions."

American Veterinary Medical Association
www.avma.org

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